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About Charles Yallowitz

Charles E. Yallowitz was born, raised, and educated in New York. Then he spent a few years in Florida, realized his fear of alligators, and moved back to the Empire State. When he isn't working hard on his epic fantasy stories, Charles can be found cooking or going on whatever adventure his son has planned for the day. 'Legends of Windemere' is his first series, but it certainly won't be his last.

10 Responses to Questions 3: Coming to the End

That is a really tough question, and I’d have to put more thought into it. Most of the series I’m reading right now are still ongoing, so I haven’t read the series ending, and even in the handful that have “ended”, I feel that the author left things a bit open just in case they wanted to come back to it.

It seems like in some popular franchises (that I haven’t read) like King’s Dark Tower and Martin’s Song of Ice/Fire, the author had no clue how to pull off an ending.

I don’t think I’d like a series ending where the author tried to be clever and turn things upside-down at the very end. The hero was actually a bad guy all along, I’m so clever! The wizard takes off his robe, and he’s a woman, I’m so clever! If something like that were done really well, it MIGHT work for a single book, but at the end of a series, no way.

Patrick O’Brian’s Master and Commander series ended mid-book when the author died. I recommend you stay away from that type of ending for as long as possible.

I’ve noticed a lot of people wonder about some big name authors not knowing how to pull off an ending. Guess it isn’t the easiest part of a story. You need to close up all the loose ends and make sure the finale works. Reminds me of how gymnasts can have a great routine and then botch the dismount.

I didn’t know that about Master and Commander. Did they ever manage to finish it? Also, do you think people are trying so hard to be clever that it’s simply unnatural? For me, it feels like the twists are ruining the entire concept of plot twists these days.

His family ended up releasing the 21st book in the series as an unfinished work. It just ends mid-story, because that’s as far as he got. There is an intro which describes their thought process, about why they decided not to bring in another author to finish it.

Maybe it’s because I’ve been reading so many short stories lately, but it seems like some authors are still trying to impress their college literature professor, first with uncommon language usage, then with trying to pretend there’s some profound meaning to whatever they’ve written, and writing an enjoying story comes in a distant third.

I love plot twists, but the author has to find a middle ground where the reader isn’t 100% sure that plot twist is coming, but the twist isn’t so far out of left field that it makes no sense within the story.

I can understand the decision to not have someone else continue a series. That’s a big risk for the entire thing. I have to check out more short stories. I’ve seen many novels with uncommon language, but I also see a lot of readers complain about words being overused. So you find alternate ways to avoid that complaint, which leads to being accused of pomposity or something.

1. What is your favorite ending to a series?
I have three favorites. I love how Tolkien took an entire book to wrap up LoTR. I love how Avatar: The Last Airbender ended. What a thoroughly satisfying wrap-up! I also love how the Harry Potter series ended.
2. Have you ever read or watched a series that was ruined by the ending? Why?
I read a few YA series the endings of which were so disappointing, I regretted reading the first book. In one series, a certain outcome was foreshadowed in book 1 that didn’t happen in book 3. It felt like a bait and switch. Many readers took to the internet to express their disappointment.
3. What do you think is the most important thing for an ending?
It needs to feel inevitable—like the author had a sense of how it was going to end early on. The Avatar creators and J. K. Rowling knew how their/her series would wrap-up and worked toward that ending. I read a fantasy series about three mythical swords. The first book was around a thousand pages long. I knew the ending was not going to be very satisfying when only one sword had been found by almost the end of the second book. The author seemed to wrap up everything very quickly in the last fifty or so pages of book three, almost like he wasn’t sure how to end it.

1. Tolkien definitely hit the target with his finale. I kind of liked how Narnia ended too since it was kind of a sad one. Almost like two of the biggest fantasy series of their era had opposing endings. Kind of forgot what the Avatar ending was.

2. YA seems to be a common victim of the bad ending. I remember a lot of people said that about ‘Hunger Games’, which is a shame.

3. Ouch. Rushed endings are terrible.That sword thing reminds me of a series that I like, which had an interesting ending. It was a surprise too because the magic sword that ended up being the last one standing was the least likely option. They didn’t really give many hints about how it would end too, which I can handle as long as the finale still works.